Brooklyn half

The NYRR Brooklyn half was my first NYRR race back in 2014.  Back then, it was my comeback race back then after my first marathon left me with an IT band injury for a few months.  I got a massive PRed with a 2:02 (shows you that months of stretching and rehab training could lead to improvements).  I returned to the Brooklyn half in 2015 as part of 9+1 for the 2016 NYC marathon.  That NYC marathon was also my last NYRR till this Brooklyn half!   

I wasn’t in shape for the half marathon.  I had a long 4 week taper going into the NJ marathon and then took 2 weeks off so I ended up going into the half with a week of quality training.  I didn’t know how to pace myself for it.  I figured I would find a 1:40 pace group which should be a pace between my marathon and 10k pace but the corral I was in had a 1:50 pace group.  I decided to go with run 5 miles a bit slow and then pick it up. 

I ate a little bit of pasta for breakfast (something new) 3 hours before race.  I also ran a little more than 1.3 miles to the Queens Distance shuttle.  I was hoping the run to be my first shakeout and then to do a 5 minute shakeout before the race started.  However, I got to the race just in time to drop my bag, get through security and wait in a long line for the porter porties.  I ended up starting with corral H, one corral after me with no warm up.  It was a cold morning despite having a poncho. 

With so many people running the race, the race is like a reunion.  I met Jeremy who ran the North Face NY 50 miler just two week prior.  Then I saw college friend Grzergory.  A mile in I saw Kenny!  At mile 2 I started feeling hot so I took my goretex bluff off my head and wrapped it around my hand.  Julie said hi during that motion and I missed my chance to say hi back.  Around mile 3 I caught up to David and we ran together and talked for a bit.  I ran through all puddles and one particular long stretch in Prospect park I heard someone say that dude is nuts, then someone said he’s like a machine.  I never really minded puddles but ultras taught me how silly trying to avoid them are.  5 miles in and towards the end of the route of the race in the park I saw two other QDR members and waved as I passed by.  Then onto the Ocean parkway. 

This long stretch was a lot lonelier as I didn’t catch up to any more familiar faces.  Volunteers here and there said go QDR and go Queens which gave nice boosts but I feel like overall I didn’t have much motivation to push myself.  Like I was running in a hard effort but I think I could have ran a bit harder if I had a strong time goal or if I was chasing someone or a pace group.  At mile 10 I saw the Claudia and Danny at the Queens Distance cheer station.  I saw Claudia reach her hand out to give a high five and I immediately started sprinting to give the high five back.  Seeing them gave me a huge boost and I found motivation to dig deeper.  You could also see the end of Ocean parkway from the last 5k which also helps visualize the end (I focused on the Belt PKWY Bridge first).  I saw Youseph in the last 400 meters or so and then Ginia Guzman in the final stretch. 

I ran the whole race on feel and I got 1:45 which I was a bit disappointed at.  Still an 11 minute PR over my half marathon last fall so still good process.  Shortly after I saw senior Guzman and said hi.  I next went to get my drop bag, I knew I won’t last long in the cold.  There was a bit of a crowd in and I couldn’t tell where the line started (it didn’t look like there was a line).  After a few minutes (my brain wasn’t fully back yet), I figured out how they organized the drop bags and I found mine.  Oddly it was my ultimate direction bottle that stuck out, not my yellow jacket.  Alternative I now realized I could have used my watch to activate an alarm on my phone which was in the drop bag.  There were people that were waiting for an hour, I saw two runners actually joined in to volunteer as well.  Then I went to change in the porter potty.  I probably took over 10 minutes, it was pretty slow going but I’m glad I brought a change of clothes.  I regret not brining a change of socks and shoes however.  I thought the drop bag was a bit small so decided not to pack shoes.  Changing got my warm initially but after a half hour I started getting cold again.  I then went walking around to find more familiar faces.  I met Jordan, Rinchen, Deki, and Drylee shortly after and hung with them till they left.  Then I met Solanny and got a picture.  I next went into the stadium and met up with WSR.  They soon left and then I tried wandering around but just got too cold with the wet socks and shoes.  I packed a cow bell in my drop bag to cheer on finishers but as soon as I got cold I decided against it.  One hour and 20 minute train ride home X.X.

Back of the pack photos at North Face Endurance Challenge Series NY

50 milers should come with a warning, it’s a world apart from the 50k and marathon distances.  Back of the pack is a tough situation...it’s not even about a bad time, you might not finish the race - a DNF.  Somehow you have to dig deeper than ever before to find the strength to keep going.  Ultra-marathons are definitely 100% mental.  I saw the 50 milers go off, volunteered till 2 pm, saw my friends come in and then cheered the last finishers.  I decided to take some pictures in hopes of capturing some of the emotions at the finish line.

Link to the photos:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmjgjKUC

NJ marathon 2018

The NJ marathon was my 22^nd marathon, my 4^th marathon this year and my season A race!    

The training

I started training for this race the holiday week 2017 (around Christmas).  I started off with 5 weeks of base building, slowly ramping up my mileage.  I focused a lot on cross training (swimming, bouldering) at this time.  February I added strength training 3x and a core focused bootcamp 1x a week.  Then I had about 5 weeks of race (2 marathons + 1 ultra) where cross training went to zero and strength training to 1-2x a week.  I had about 6 weeks after the Georgia marathon to train solely for NJ and I wanted to focus on speed but I jumped into training too soon and got a strain.  I ignored it at first and continued on but the pain got worse to where it hurt while walking so I went into a 4 week taper (instead of the 2 weeks as I originally planned).  I cut my miles by half and skipped a few key workouts.  I spent a little more time on swimming and got back to strength training 2x a week.  I got to race day with plenty of rest and recovery but not feeling super confident because of the missed workouts.  I usually do short one week taper so two weeks was already a lot for me but 4 weeks!   :/.  The week of the race I ate more salads and greens, two days before I started eating more carbs.

The Day before

After a longer than expected drive (huge traffic different between leaving at 9 am and 10 am!), I made it to the expo with Francis and Neena.  Met Cathy + Nate inside the expo and met Rene on his way out.  I ended up talking to Rene for a while.  I took some notes since he was aiming for 2:50-2:55 marathon =O.  One thing I found important was his reminder to hydrate properly the day before, something with the traveling I was forgetting to do.

The expo was super small…even smaller than Atlanta and I got through it in less than 5 minutes.  No freebees but they had a cool photo print station.  Afterwards we did a shakeout run!  The shakeout run the day before a marathon is something I got from QDR.  I chose to jog on the beach barefoot for 30 minutes; it gave me a chance to enjoy the beach while I was still in the mood.  I was pretty sure that after the marathon the beach would be far from my mind.  I only did 2.5 miles in the thirty minutes but that’s okay, it was never the miles that mattered but time on my feet.  I also thought of the run as form work (as it been getting warmer I been doing a few short runs barefoot on grass as well).  Next was lunch where I got to walk around Long Branch and check the town out briefly before an early dinner on the way back (I drove back to Queens for the night).  I got to check out two vegan spots – Karma café and Vegan tree.

Once at home I found my blue sharpie in my archery bag (backup for initialing arrows) and wrote "This is what you came for" on my arm with an arrow pointing forward.  I wrote this as my mantra, I chose to come here to push myself to the breaking point - I'm here to dig deeper and find the strength to break through it.  It also reminds me that I'm here because I love it.  I focused a lot on the love I have received over the years through running.  From struggling to just jog a mile without stopping 5.5 years to learning what taper is two days before my first marathon to surviving a 100 miler to my PR streaks of today.  It has been a crazy journey and I'm grateful for all the support I have received over the years.  I been last place or near last place in quite a lot of races and I'm finally at a place where I’m getting a lot better (still baby steps).

 

I also prepared a running playlist.  Like the Georgia marathon I was planning to listen to music for miles 10-20.  In Atlanta I had the two songs that the iphone came with and just hated it.  This time I brought jaybird Run true wireless which allows me to play music on one ear (with one ear piece).  I also choose songs that people have recommended to me in the past for running.  I'm not much of a music fan but listening to those songs reminded me of the person who recommended it.  Then my laptop itunes wasn't syncing with my iphone so I had to transfer to dropbox and find an app that could play a playlist off dropbox.  I ended up with 4 hours of sleep.

 

The internal focus the night before gave me the confidence to aim for 3:30.  The week before, I debated what time to aim for.  I felt that 3:40 was a safe bet, 3:35 was mostly likely doable and that 3:30 was a bit crazy.  It adds up to just 12-13 seconds per mile but that add up to a lot over 26.2 miles.

 

Pre race

I arrived at the race parking lot at about 6 am, took maybe 5 minutes to park.  I like coming to the race 90 minutes early if I'm not staying within walking distance to the race.  It took me another 10 minutes to gather my stuff; I almost forgot my running shoes!  I had plenty of time to go to a real bathroom with a small line (waited like 5 minutes), met Jeff and Gabe, take team photos, do a 5 minute shakeout run (a habit I picked up from Julie during the NOLA marathon), take shelter from the rain with more hanging out, eat a waffle cookie and my gel and get close to the start of my corral.  I definitely didn't need any stress of rushing to the start line; the marathon is 100% mental!

 

Miles 1-10

I broke off the race to three sections.  I would stick to the 3:30 pace group for the first 10 miles.  Then I would cruise the next 10 miles with the help of music and then struggle though the real start of the race during the last 10k.  I started the race with Rinchen so we were close to the 3:20 pace group.  I had to back off slightly to allow the 3:30 to catch up.  They ended up passing by too quickly.  I struggled with the pace immediately, it felt more like a half marathon pace but I decided to hang on.  I also started chafing immediately, I'm not sure why but I just ignored it.  I found two Dashing Whippets and a Van Cortlandt runner going at 3:30 so I paced with them till mile 4 where I lost them.  As I approach mile 4 I was ready to eat my first gel but I decided to see if adjusting my shorts would fix the chafing problem which lead to me dropping the gel.  Did not stop to pick it up.  I usually take a gel 15 minutes before, first gel at mile 4 and then gels about every 3 miles till mile 20.  Then I switch over to drinking Gatorade.  This race I also ate a waffle cookie before the race because I felt hungry.  I guess my two bananas with chocolate 3 hours beforehand weren't cutting it.  I was able to keep the 3:30 within sight for this time.  Around mile 9 my feet started feeling sore.  I had decided to wear my minimalist Topo shoes instead of my 800+ miles wore out Brooks’s shoes mostly because the Brooks shoes had holes in them and it was raining.  I knew my feet would get sore but this was a bit early.

 

Mile 10-20

I was struggling at mile 10 but this is where I would use music!  Except that I have no idea how to turn on my earpiece.  At mile 11 I even tried looking it up on my phone but got general directions.  After fumbling for a bit I decided to just put the jaybird in my right ear and I got it to work at mile 12.  I like this setup - being able to listen to music in one ear but with the other ear open I am able to hear everything around me.  Mostly the cheers that spectaculars are giving!  A runner passes gives me a double high five and then runs on (she had quite the energy).  A man says go Queens, best borough to which I cheer at but then he continues and says next to Brooklyn to which I make a face.  My strategy was to get through the struggle of pace was by distracting myself.  I feed off the energy of spectaculars, swung my arms in dancing motions to some of the songs.  I probably was wasting energy but it kept me distracted.  Also around mile 10 Kathryn caught up and we run around each other for 3ish miles and then miles 13-15 together before she passed by.  At mile 15 I almost caught up to the 3:30 pace group too.  At miles 18 and 19 I saw Kathryn and Rinchen at the turnarounds which gave me a boost.  Around mile 20 I saw Francis and Cathy for another boost!  The turnaround was good mentally for this.

 

Miles 20 to 26.2

I lost sight of the 3:30 pace group and at this point I was slowing down.  It didn't feel like the wall, it kind of felt like I mentally faded.  I used mantras and then aimed for the buildings as targets to run strong to and then set another target.  Step by step.  I caught up to Nate who was also going for 3:30, I wish I saw him earlier and got a chance to work together with him towards our goals.  He was struggling at this point.  A team in training coach just started running with him and I guess was going to give him some pep talk.  The coach told me the course is all downhill from here and I joked that's what I been telling myself.  A runner says there is only 4.5 miles at which I dread thinking about.  At around mile 22 I see Kenny which gives a big boost.  The miles here were pretty empty of people so it was a bit rough mentally, the boost from music had long wore out and my midfoot felt like they had been burnt.  At mile 24, feeling the end of the run I started picking it up again.  Also there was more of a crowd which helped.  At 24.8ish, the ground became a smooth broadwalk and I was able to glide through (much to the happiness of my feet).  I run the last mile strong but just 10 feet or so shy from the finish I get a sudden cramp on my right hamstring.  It was so painful that it stopped my run and had me hop over the last few steps.  Not a great finishing pic :/.

 

I struggled to walk with the cramp and volunteers asked if I needed help but I figure I just needed some electrolytes.  The cramp went away and I immediately caught up with Rinchen, Rene, and Kathryn.  They had some awesome finishing times. I got my drop bag and went to the changing tent.  Realized I couldn’t pull my clothes on without holding on to something and then I met Mike.  I met him before in the easy run with Scott Jurek during his book event.  He offered me a seat and we caught up briefly.  Air relax boot massage with Cathy and Nate and lunch with some QDR people to end my NJ marathon experience.